Easter Bunny Shaped Rolls

How adorable are these Easter Bunny Shaped Rolls? The photo above is from a professional pastry chef. The dough is a pastry dough and not a bread rolls dough. This photo above is for Easter Bunny Shaped Rolls inspiration only. If you want to try the original recipe, please visit the link in the next paragraph. Good luck to you!

** Edited April 2014: The original recipe has finally been located (thank you, Pat!) The original recipe uses a pastry dough instead of a bread dough. The original recipe “Chinese New Year Pineapple Tarts” that look like bunnies are actually pastries with a sweet pineapple filling.

Aw, that’s so cute! I just told my mom about this, she said her mom used to make them too. She hasn’t thought about them in years. Great nostalgia for her. We’re definitely doing this for Easter! Thanks for the recipe:)

This is just too adorable. I will be doing this for Easter dinner definitely. My family would be shocked to see me do this just because it is something different and not what I would normally do. Thanks for sharing this adorable recipe. Have a great weekend!!!!

Hi Laura, I have never made these without the sour cream, so I’m not sure what to substitute for it. But, I would assume that you could use another roll recipe and shape them the same way. Hope that sort of helps. -Nicole

I just made these with plain yogurt instead of sour cream and they turned out great! I did need some extra flour but that was all. Thanks for the great description of “pliable but not sticky” so that I knew exactly what I was looking for!

Hi Susan, I haven’t tried it with frozen bread dough but would think it should work the same as other doughs. BUT to be honest with you, this recipe has not worked out very well with the ears shaping. I can’t get it just right like the picture shows it (and as you can probably tell from the comments, many others are having a hard time getting the ears to lay down too). I still think this is such a cute idea to have bunny shaped rolls, but just wish it worked out better for all of us who are trying so hard to make them. Good luck if you decide to make it. Happy Easter! -Nicole

I tried them for the first time today and just used a can of refrigerated French Bread. They came out looking more like chubby cats; so I’ll have to work on my ingredients and/or techniques; still a cute idea, though.

I thawed out a frozen loaf of bread, cut it up into 16 pieces, tried to shape them a bit egg shaped, let them rise…then snipped in the ears…actually worked well, as long as you wet your finger & patiently shape and he tips of the ears so they round off…then spritzer them with spray butter, sprinkled a bit of Italian seasoning for flavoir and baked at 350′ for approx 20 mins…everyone thought they were cool! But the ones I didn’t spend much time on the ears…well they liked like vampire bunnies!

I have never seen such a cute rolls in my life and the fact that it’s literally only a couple snips with kitchen shears! I absolutely love it! I’m definitely going to be making these…they will be on my table at Easter but I’ll likely make them well before then as well…I think they will be really cute on a green plate that makes it look like baby bunnies on grass…thanks so much for such a cute bunny roll tutorial.

I myself have three boys an 8 year old and a set of twins that are 3 and I am always looking for new recipes to mix thing up a little and when I seen this I new it would be the perfect recipe to put a smile on there faces.SO Thanks!

How cute — bunny buns! 🙂
I am Nim, a valiant voyager from the Discover Which Adventurer You Are Quiz! from the Return to Nim’s Island app. No place to put this at the end of that blog, so I put it here.

These are so cute, but mine came out more like pigs or something. They looked similar to the photo where the lady said hers’ looked like gremlins. Maybe my problem was using frozen dough & shaping after they had risen for several hours? The dough continued to rise up while baking & the ears & faces practically disappeared.

I made these without realizing that the picture in this post is from some other site, and I could not actually trace the original source. The picture of snipping the ears does not result in the bunnies on the left! The bunny ears end up being two sharp pointy ears that stand up and look more like a cat or Pikachu. The real end result looks nothing like bunnies. I’ve seen several other people who had this same problem (I only researched after I made them, unfortunately). Please, others, do not plan to make these for your Easter without practising first, so you can see that in real life they do not look like that picture!

I have to agree with Natalie. The picture with the shears appears to be from http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/5397061211/in/photostream/, not from the blog you have as the source. The blog you have as the source has pictures closer to “gremlins” than the sleek little bunnies on the left. If you took that picture, please give us more detailed instructions on how you made them look like that or link to the source of the photo on the left.

Abby, thanks for letting me know you tracked the photo to flickr. I thought I had tracked down the actual photo’s source to Ancika (the blogger linked below). She acted as though this was her work and never told me that was not her photo. I don’t really know what to do at this point. I’d like to credit the right person for their photo. But mainly, I was just trying to share what I thought was a really cute idea for Easter rolls. I apologize for the inconvenience and if I do find the right person, I will post that information here at the blog post.

Nicole, after doing seeing this image posted on Facebook: {edited to remove link}, I goggled to find these rolls and found your blog. I just wanted to let you know that in addition to the fact that has already been pointed out that the image of the finished bunnies and the ones being cut with scissors aren’t from the same blog, they aren’t even the same type of food. I did some research, and eventually found that the original finished bunny photo is almost certainly not of bread or rolls, but of Japanese manju (a type of small cookie-like pastry that is a totally different consistency that bread dough, making shaping and molding techniques much easier). I wasn’t able to track down the original source image, but here is another link which shows identical bunnies and {edited to remove link} says that they are in fact Japanese manju bought at a Japanese bakery.
With this in mind, I’d suggest that you take the manju image out of this blog post and show an image of the actual results one can expect to get with this recipe and kitchen shear ear cutting technique, since it’s become clear that no amount of practice will make these scissor cut rolls look anything like Japanese manju in the first picture you have up now.

Thanks for sharing all this feedback. I have tried to track down the original recipe for whatever it is in the blog post and have not had any luck. Your search gets me one step closer to figuring out what in the world these bunnies are actually made out of.
All I can do is suggest that people try making these at their own risk. Some people have better results than others depending on the dough they are using. But I appreciate your words of warning and advice – and hopefully others will read the comments and take yours to heart.

Just tried this recipe and it was an epic fail as it failed to raise ( i had a feeling it would) so i just changed up the recipe/technique a bit and have had wonderful results : While my sour cream mixture was cooling i proofed my yeast as usual, then added the egg to the cream mixture whisked it all together and added to my dry ingredients. And in this way i also didn’t have to add any more water… Rising like a dream Thanks for the great Idea

Recipe was also added to the blog post – here it is for you:
Ingredients:
2-1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons butter
1 egg
Directions:
Put the butter, the sour cream and water in a small saucepan and heat, but do not cook. Cool to tepid then add the remaining ingredients. Put in a kneader. If thick add more water.
Let it rise double and cut into 16 equal parts.
Baking tray lined with baking paper and cut the ears with scissors. When the dough is STILL SOFT, Make sure you smooth the edges around, so you do not end up with devil horns.
The eyes can be put in or use something as pepper grains.
Bake at 375° for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Here is the recipe that was on the original blog post (I added it back to the post for you – thanks for your request!) Good luck!
Ingredients:
2-1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons butter
1 egg
Directions:
Put the butter, the sour cream and water in a small saucepan and heat, but do not cook. Cool to tepid then add the remaining ingredients. Put in a kneader. If thick add more water.
Let it rise double and cut into 16 equal parts.
Baking tray lined with baking paper and cut the ears with scissors. When the dough is STILL SOFT, Make sure you smooth the edges around, so you do not end up with devil horns.
The eyes can be put in or use something as pepper grains.
Bake at 375° for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.

I found out it is kind of difficult to get the ears to work when they bake (they can rise up and look like horns). Yes, you can try the freezer rolls dough. I have done that before. I definitely recommend testing this out before the “big Easter meal” in case the bunnies don’t turn out right. The chef who made the ones in the picture makes it look so easy!

I think it should work the same with the frozen dough (once it has thawed and is pliable enough to work with). **Note to anyone else reading this comment, if you have tried it with frozen dough, your feedback would be appreciated!**

Just tried to make these … Used my bread dough recipe that I use for Easter bread. Soooooo disappointed … The ears came up and more forward than back … When I cut them, they looked just like the picture … Not so much like the picture once they baked …

Thank you SO much for leaving the link – I have looked everywhere for that recipe and could not find it. Mystery solved! (after more than a year!) And that is very interesting, too. I had no idea these had pineapple in the middle. Thanks! -Nicole

Hi Mary – It is called Chinese New Year Pineapple Tarts. I just double checked and the link listed near the bottom of my blog post just worked for me, so it should take you there. Hope that helps! –Nicole

After the dough has doubled and you divide the dough and roll into balls, do you let them rise again before snipping with shears or do it right off the bat? Just wondering and wanted to try this out before Sunday so I won’t have a disfuntctional bunny roll on my hands.

I’m not sure because I have only seen my MIL do this with frozen dough and I can’t remember if she let it rise again or not. I would think it’s best to wait until ready to bake and then cut them…but I’m just guessing. I’m sorry. I do recommend trying a test roll ahead of time because the ears do tend to bake up and start sticking up. It may take a few tries to get them to look right. Hope that helps a little bit. Good luck!

I am trying to find the pastry dough recipe that you said was linked in at the bottom for these. Not finding any links on here for an additional recipe only the recipe that you have listed above in your blog. In the spot where I am assuming it used to be …it says it’s been edited. lol Oh well. 🙂

Hi Julie – The link is there at the bottom. Click on the link called “Chinese New Year Pineapple Tarts” and that will take you to the original recipe where you will see a pastry dough recipe about halfway down the page. Let me know if you have any trouble finding it and I’m glad to help out. You can email me at momalwaysfindsout (at)gmail (dot) com

The Inspiration picture is a Japanese manju bunny. It was made with a mould and that is why it looks perfect. The DIY kind are really cute and definitely worth trying, but don’t expect them to look the same. To try to get more bunny ears rather than pikachu ears, snip a longer, larger amount from the back of the bunny and shape them before baking. Great recipe, thanks.

I wonder if everyone who’s getting gremlins is cutting the ears too much? It looks to me as if only the very tip is actually being cut, and the blades of the scissors are just marking the edges of the ears further down. The scissors are not closed.

Can some of you please post photos of your end result. Whether they turned out well or not, it would be helpful for us to see what they turned out to be. Maybe then we could put our heads together and figure out how to make them correctly. 🙂

There’s now a link in the comments below the Easter Bunny Shaped Rolls blog post that has a great tutorial to Easter Bunny shaped brioche rolls. They include step by step photos. You should check it out – I think it will answer all your questions. Thanks for stopping by. Let me know how your rolls turn out should you decide to make them. Good luck!

Hurray! So glad that you found the right way to shape the rolls and cut the ears so they turn out right. I know it takes some practice. Thanks for stopping by and letting us all know. I know everyone will also be glad to hear that YES, FROZEN ROLL DOUGH WILL WORK! -Nicole

I would love to try this but I have a feeling they wont turn out as perfect and may end up on one of those Nailed It sites. I laugh my butt off at the Nailed its! I like that I can use pre made rolls, that helps.

the ones in the pic (Manju) are baked in a mould ( like a waffel maker) so you will never get them that perfect. I find when the dough is very soft they flatten out too much, so nect time I will add less fluid. It´s better to lay the scissors relatively flat and cut quite deep, to cut a long ear, pull it a bit and flatten the tips with wet fingers. My bunnies looked a bit melted, so it´s probably better to cut just before you put them in the oven. But the idea with the ears is great and quite simple. Thanx 🙂

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